Hello and happy May 1st to you!

So, there's no board dedicated to 6th ed, so I'll ramble here a bit.

Just started readin through the Vol 1 book. Not too much has changed since 5, though as mentioned, the loss of figured statistics coming from your base characteristics as well is definitely a big change. Beyond that, the rest seems like mostly pointless name changes and streamlining/extra complicating powers by removing separate powers for certain things. Seems an easy enough change from 5th to 6th so far.

I agree.

My question though, is why, with so few changes, is this a whole new edition?

That I have no idea of why. If anyone knows, it would be the people at Hero who published it, at least I would hope they know.

Seems to me like they're just trying to get money out of it. Could have just been some errata to the old version.

You could be right. I mean it's something we do for fun playing these games, but to the guys that make them, it's a business they need to make money and sell their games or they are gone.

The change from Figured Characteristics to Purchased Characteristics was a big change, and not something that would translate easily with the structure of 5th edition.  The points required to build a character as well had to be changed, to allow for the purchase of the new characteristics.  Some powers, indeed, were changed little if at all.  But others were rolled together into one power with advantages and limitations used to model some of the previous abilities.

Did they need to create a new edition?  Yes and no.  The changes were significant enough to warrant a sizable chunk of pages, and when dealing with a product line it naturally reaches the end of a life cycle.   Once you have reached the end of that cycle, in order to stay in business you must generate new revenue.   The changes were enough to warrant a new edition, and the things they've done have been pretty good.  The goal is indeed to get money out of it, without money they will go out of business.  It's the same business model that every company uses, with DOJ it just so happens that Hero is their product line.  They don't dabble in TCGs, CSGs, board games, etc.

They do one thing, and do it pretty well.  Does it hit the budget, you bet.  Especially when you come into the edition at the end.  But, for instance, using me as an example - I had gotten out of gaming altogether and sold or dumped everything except my old Rolemaster books.   When I came back to gaming, 6E was about a year old.  But the comments on what DOJ was doing with the system, plus one picture sold me on the new edition.   The comments were that the binding was the best its ever been and the core books were the most solid set to date in terms of durability.   That's a huge plus.  Then I found that if I bought the books directly from DOJ, I'd get the PDFs for .02 more.   Another plus, since I read mostly from PDF these days.   I use the books for the F2F encounters, but at home I read electronically.   Then I saw the cover for Fantasy Hero and that was it.

I still haven't managed to get a F2F group started, but I wholeheartedly support the decision to create 6E.   It was the right move for the company and the books are the most attractive presentation of the game since....BBB.

That's my .02!

Is ther a way to get just the pdfs of 6th ed rules? And what would it cost? Being that I am disabled and only able to work part time, my funds are extremely
limited.

The PDF bundle for both books is $50, at www.herogames.com

But, if you're only interested in the character creation portion then you might look for their damaged book + PDF.  They have the Character Book (damaged) + PDF for $29.99.  There's probably a crease in the cover or something like that  so they've discounted it.

Or there's always bittorrent.

I do have the Hero system basic rulebook (for 6th Edition rules) which I got for $22.99 + taxes (Canadian dollars) Which has enough stuff to create characters easily as well as stuff useful for gming (rules type stuff you know...). Bought it in the local comic book and games shop.

Not that I wholly endorse this, but if you want the books for free I could provide links for direct download of the pdfs. All of them virus free, as personally checked by me.

I like paying for books to help out companies, but sometimes companies don't need my help, nor am I able to give it. Sometimes it's between downloading and playing, or not playing at all.

In addition to that, I'm living in a desert at the moment, so there's no way for me to acquire a physical book. So I've found a lot more resources for downloading books.

Eventually I may go back and purchase the books that I use a lot and enjoy, letting the others sit and collect digital dust.

Tehjo I would love links for that, as I am on a brand new computer I would hate to get it infected with a virus. Also over the decades I am sure  Have given Hero games hundreds of dollars worth of business. Also being poor I need to save money for things like food and shelter... little luxuries like that.

Hello Hero people! :)

Activity got down a bit here and since I am working on a Hero System using game here on rpol, I decided to add some words and thought about it here.
Don`t have much experience with Hero, but I own the 5ed book and a lot of PDFs, including the 6th edition.
Now I am trying to make up a TRANSFORMERS game on rpol using Hero 6. :)
Don`t know how well that will run, always thought Hero isn`t suited well for pbem gaming, but we will see!

Sounds interesting, keep us informed of how it goes.

I will... I will. :)

Its a long-time project. Actually a re-build of my Transformers game here that died a year ago. But never deleted it because it was a lot of fun. I used the WUSHU system and was surprised how well it worked. Espacially in a pbem game.
But It showed some drawbacks, which sure could easily be balanced out by increasing the details and make up some houserules - but thinking about that lead me the point where I said to me: "hey, with an increase of choices, details and rules in general, I can just as well use HERO!"

I've always used mutants and masterminds, which in your opinion is better? Between mutants and masterminds , and the Hero system that is

AzureKnight... :) hello Dragonball player!
I know MnM 2nd edition and can say that for a d20 game it is very good. I was surprised when I saw it. My opinion is that MnM reached with that the league of games like HERO, but playing in the same league doesn't make them equal ;) haven't seen a game that is as good as the Hero System.
I wonder how good GURPS 4 is, it is said that it has similarities to Hero since that edidition, similarities in parts where the game always was "behind" Hero.

But after all it depends what kind of game you want. Hero is customizable for nearly everything. GURPS always was quite fixed on "hard", "realistic" gaming. Good in that area, but not as versatile as Hero.

From what I've seen in my rules perusals, as I haven't played a game in it yet unfortunately, MnM(3d at least) is considerably less customizable than Hero is. It's limited like all D20 offerings are.

Having played all three editions of M&M, and the 4th, 5th, and 6th editions of Hero, I think I can make a good distinction between the two.

Both systems are points-based, effects-based systems. You buy effects. A Blast could be a shotgun, a bolt of lighting, an energy beam from your eyes, a psionic bolt etc. This is true in both systems. Both systems are good at doing a variety of things. Fantasy, Supers (obviously), and sci-fi are all easily done.

The difference between the two is in the play style. One is more freewheeling, and the other is more tactical.

In M&M, you have a freewheeling style that replicates the feel of combat in comic books. You don't have hit points or the like, and fights can last a while, or they can be over in a couple rounds if you fail your saves. If you enjoyed the climactic fight at the end of the third Matrix movie, where they're in a city-spanning brawl, then that is the kind of thing you can do easily with M&M.

In Hero, you have a more tactical style of play, like you find in D&D. You have hit points, and more resources that you have to keep track of, and movement is based on a hex grid. Makes it an excellent choice for grittier games.

That's the big difference between the system structures as a whole. Hero is nice in that it really hasn't changed much over the last three editions. There's some cosmetic things, of course, but for the most part the mechanic is the same.

M&M has changed through the editions. Here's my breakdown on the way things worked.

1st ed: Weaknesses were worth 10pp each, period. Powers could not be taken past your power level, which meant that some characters, such as Flash, were hard to do at lower levels, while characters like Cloak and Dagger were easily done. It could be fairly unbalanced, as someone with enough flaws could get to be a good deal more powerful than the other players, but the lack of power frameworks meant you had to have a lot of points to be a generalist rather than a specialist.

2nd ed: Drawbacks now grant a variable amount of points depending on severity. You can buy powers without saves to any level you like, but powers with saves were capped at Power Level, which means you can have someone who flies at the speed of light, but you couldn't have someone who can punch a hole in the moon. A well-balanced system, allowing for a great deal of customization without going overboard.

3rd ed: Drawbacks no longer grant PP at all. If your vampire can't take sunlight, that's a complication now, and will give you a hero point if you burst into flame walking past a window. Power structure is unchanged, but you have two new attributes to buy up, and more defenses. Meaning in addition to not getting PP from drawbacks, you have to shell out more PP on attributes and defenses. Heavily skewed towards characters like Cyclops or Superman (a couple tricks, that they do well, but no real flaws).

In reply to Caranamon (msg #36):

Lil creepy that you recognized me so easily lol :P

Gurps is a good system if you want to play a franchise that doesn't have a RPG to it, but as for super powers its not the best game.

Thanks srgrosse.

In reply to AzureKnight5190 (msg #39):

I am the GM there ;)
It would be a shame if I wouldn`t recognize that name...

i realized that after i sent the message, i felt so embarrassed :D

So are you two ok with each other now? I hope so, us Hero system fans need to stick together.